Frederick Douglass

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

— Frederick Douglass

He who would be free must strike the first blow.

— Frederick Douglass

Our destiny is largely in our hands.

— Frederick Douglass

Allow us the dignity to fight for our own freedom

— Frederick Douglass

Intelligence is a great leveler here as elsewhere

— Frederick Douglass

The mind does not take its complexion from the skin…

— Frederick Douglass

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

— Frederick Douglass

If there's no struggle, there's no progress.

— Frederick Douglass

We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.

— Frederick Douglass

They who study mankind with a whip in their hands will always go wrong.

— Frederick Douglass

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, . . . neither persons nor property will be safe.

— Frederick Douglass

Right is of no Sex-Truth is of no Color-God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.

— Frederick Douglass

“The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.”

— Frederick Douglass

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

— Frederick Douglass

In life you don't get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get.

— Frederick Douglass

In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the color line.

— Frederick Douglass

This war, disguise it as they may, is virtually nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedoms.

— Frederick Douglass

Poverty, ignorance and degradation are the combined evils, these constitute the social disease of the free colored people of the US.

— Frederick Douglass

“The name given me by my mother was, "Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey." I, however, had dispensed with the two middle names long…

— Frederick Douglass

Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.

— Frederick Douglass

“The thought of only being a creature of the present and past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope…

— Frederick Douglass

“Reader! Are you with the man-stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on the side of their down-trodden victims? If with the former,…

— Frederick Douglass

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give…

— Frederick Douglass

I love the religion of Christianity - which cometh from above - which is a pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,…

— Frederick Douglass

“A treacherous President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen how reluctant good men might be to admit an…

— Frederick Douglass

I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were…

— Frederick Douglass

I knew that however bad the Republican party was, the Democratic party was much worse. The elements of which the Republican party…

— Frederick Douglass

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit…

— Frederick Douglass

There are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers…

— Frederick Douglass

Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to…

— Frederick Douglass

There is a class of people who seem to think that if a man should fall overboard into the sea with a…

— Frederick Douglass

In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great…

— Frederick Douglass

“From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was…

— Frederick Douglass

Viewing the man from the genuine abolitionist ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed cold, tardy, weak and unequal to the task. But, viewing him…

— Frederick Douglass

“I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character…

— Frederick Douglass

“I dwell mostly upon the religious aspects, because I believe it is the religious people who are to be relied upon in…

— Frederick Douglass

“Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born circa 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, women's suffragist, editor, orator,…

— Frederick Douglass

“Such are the limitations of the human mind, and so thoroughly engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few…

— Frederick Douglass

“The first two hours of that morning were such as I never experienced before, and hope never to again. Early in the…

— Frederick Douglass

“If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that…

— Frederick Douglass